I got into Savannah the last lingering days of August and chaos, beautiful chaos, soon ensued. After 4 days of a mad dash to switch houses (which was pulled of 110% successfully) and a period of strange jet-lag induced humidity-inspired transitioning I found myself in the best of all possible scenarios in a room that resembles more of a studio than a place for sleep. My room grew to be arrange circularly amongst the walls. From left to right; door, chair, desk, table, bookshelf, fireplace, bed, boxes, door (repeat). The room is bigger (much bigger) than where I was yesteryear (106 Brady), or the year before that (SCAD Dorms), or the year before that (Idyllwild), and all the 18 years before that as well (99603). The joy of having a large enough room to be able to make stuff, conduct experiments, lounge around and read books, store things, sit in a chair, and have a big desk, is truly grand. Space is important, and in this day and age of ever more virtual realities, its reassuring and grounding to actually have "space" to oneself.
SCAD classes started two weeks ago, but as I am not enrolled in classes this quarter that affected me little. However, the energy of the people around me, as it fell into a rhythm, rubbed off I feel and has allowed me to find my own rhythm at which to do work. This monday really started things off. I'm working on two "art" projects right now: Spin Art, and Allegory of the Seasons. They both contrast and compliment each other very well, and I'm constantly surprised and excited to learn about the limits of both.
I had a desk fan that I took apart the other day and painted each of the blades a primary color. When I put it back together and turned it on they blurred together to create a warm grey. Interesting! So I laid that aside for a week and fumbled around with other doodads and himjims before I realized I could combine elements of my room that were laying around and turn them into something alive and interactive. I grabbed a vinyl record of christmas music I had laying around from last year, shaved the inside hole a millimeter or so bigger, then took off the fan blades and sunk the record onto the fan axle with a dollop of super-effing-hot-glue and set the speed to LO, after it settles down and reaches spinning tranquility you apply paint. The centrifugal force pulls the paint to the edges in the most beautiful, abstract, and unpredictable ways. My room mates and I, and other random drop-ins, have made 26 spinned records so far, each one as different as the next.
This style of making art is one of the most interactive and explorable ideas I've come across in a long time. The other great thing is you can have many people working on the same one. It becomes a group project, a lesson in learning to share your creations. It's mesmerizing, instructive, beautiful, and seductive. And so simple!
My other project is quite the opposite.
The Allegory of the Seasons will be four large masonite panels portraying the shift in seasons we see on planet Earth. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. The concept behind this project is to display the three elements of nature and their relationship to each other. The solid rock of the earth, the ever varied kingdom of plants, and the beauty of man. I am playing with those three elements to create a story of circular progression. A rise, and a fall. A warm, and a cold. A spin.
I built the first panel yesterday (right before it rained), and its a beauty! Today I'll probably start to gesso it and prepping it for the paint. I bought an overhead projector on eBay the other day and I've been drawing designs on lexan with a micron pen and I can project them onto the masonite board to see how everything will fit together. It's been wonderful working so hard to plan everything, from the composition of the background (which will resemble renaissance wallpaper) to the engineering of flowers and their parallels to the human body.
All of this spinning, and cycling has made me think, re-think, and meditate on reality. I am only sure of one thing in life and that is my ignorance, but I've accepted that and realized that I really get a hoot out of coming up with theories of reality. It's my own metaphysical exercises. Anywhoo, the spinning is important. I was writing some stuff down last night and concepts of color, the substances of reality, the difference between a static volume and a spinning volume... not yet ready to make a blog post about it, but I'll let it fester in the wrinkles of my brain.
Also.... Tonight I'm gonna be in the "Naughty Nautical Nite" singing and dancing. I met Dame Darcy a couple weeks ago and nothings been the same. More on that later...
Blessings to all!
